Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-14
A REMARKABLE REPORT.

A REMARKABLE REPORT.
A remarkable document was submitted
on Saturday by the San Francisco Bar AS
ISOLATION to the Superior Judges in that
city, and by them approved, and radical
methods adopted to relieve the george"
Of criminal trials in that city. In brief
it was frank admission by the Bar Asso-
citation that the procedure and practice in
criminal cases in that city have become
outrageous for delay. The Association, by
It's committee, finds that there is unreason-
able and shameful delay in bringing Grim
inals to trial in San Francisco-and it
might have added in other places too-and
that the reason for it is threefold. First,
because of the host of technical advantages
afforded the criminal by our laws in their
mistaken mercy; second the reprehensi-
bic practice that has grown up of granting
continuances. This has gone to the extent
Of recognized custom, warranting a con-
tinuance when the prisoner is first called
70 trial, simply because ii is the first call,
and on the evil of this miserable practice
the committee is especially severe; third,
the outrageous license given to criminal
lawyers in the examination of jurors upon
he question of qualification Here we
have a staid and deliberate-speaking COM
mittee of old lawyers saying:
But one, if not the chief cause for DELAYS. con-
sidered in their wider sense. and of the instruc
tons of our criminal Courts lies in the elabor-
ate criminal procedure which our statute pro-
vides, beginning with the Grand Jury system
and challenges to the Grand Jury as a panel !
aud innumerable challenges to each Grand
Juror, which proceedings not unfrequently
block the Court for days and render long con-
tinuances possible and coming next to the sys- |
TEN of trial by jury, with days and even weeks |
consumed in the examination of jurors, ques-
toning them on every incident of their lives |
and every opinion they entertain. with chal- |
Ienges without number, until jury is obtained
composed of men who neither have rare cap |
aule OF having opinions But the real delays |
have Just begun. Motions for new trials which
should be made on rendition OF the verdict con- |
sumo months, and in the end, if Il criminal re- |
ceiye his punishment within a year after he |
commits his offense the administration of Justice
has been speedy.
We submit, that if newspaper had said |
as much as that, half the lawyers in the |
land would have tip-tilted their noses and |
have talked bitterly about fools in forbid |
den paths. The truth is, the better-think- |
ing lawyers see precisely where we are |
driving Either one Of two things must |
come about, reform of criminal law pro-
ceedings, or the rule of the mob. We |
favor the drift to the shoals OF communism |
and disorder, just as long as we tolerate
such abuses as those recited. The commit
Zee proceeded to read lessons to the
Courts upon the question of granting new
trials and the intolerabIe DELAYS per-
mitted in preparing motions for new
trials and to point out the great
wrong that is done in granting
continuanees to accommodate the convent
ence of lawyers. We publish a full
copy of the report elsewhere, for we look
upon it as a very significant document, in
dieating a change in the methods of our
criminal procedure change long needed.
and that cannot be much longer delayed
with safety. White the committee laws
most of the blame at the doors of the
Legislature, let this he said in response
most of the statutes involved are the |
thought OF lawyers in and out of the Leg
islature, TO whom lay members concede al
most entirely when amendments to prae-
tice acts are proposed. We believe that |
the Code Commission which gave us the
foundation for our present criminal prac- |
tice intended to have much more simplifed |
it, had it been possible What they did |
do was in the face of old customs, and met |
any amount of opposition. They knew |
that too much machinery was left but they |
did not dare TO remove more than they |
did for fear of endangerirg the whole |
work. Their codes have been much |
amended since 1872, and the symmetry of |
the whole scheme no little married.
The ease with which technical objections |
may I've made the basis for appeal, and the |
clogged calendars Of the Supreme Court, |
have been fruitful causes of the laws de- |
lays. The frequency of appeals in Grim
inal cases has resulted in such long line
of decisions that it is rather the exception
now if in any especially extended trial |
lower Court is able to so steer as TO avoid
exceptions being taken, which will stick"
in the Supreme Court.
Not long ago gentleman now upon the
Supreme bench pointed out that the prac-
tice of sending cases back for retrial is the
cause OF much Of the laws delays on both
sides, criminal and civil, and in an admir-
able monograph in popular magazine he
pointed out remedy for the i'll. Proba-
bly, the law is here, as in the other case, at
fault and needs shearing and trimming, to
the end that judgments may be modified
without re-trials ofnecessity, and yet with
out any right being stripped from any
man. OF course, modification would be
less possible and more difficult in criminal